Doritos and Zen

So I got a bag of Doritos today, and as I was opening it I noticed a big sign printed on the front that read "Now BETTER Tasting!" It was on some graphic that looked like it was hooked up with lots of wires to the bag. The implication is that they wired the chips to some electrodes and zapped it with electricity to make them better. Or something.

But this is really weird, when you think about it. Normally they might say "NOW CHEESIER!" and you'd think, "oh, hey, they put some extra fake cheese powder on the chips. I like cheese powder. I'll buy it!" Or "NOW BIGGER" or "NOW CRUNCHIER." But "BETTER"? That's just nuts. That's so ambiguous. Maybe it's a Pirsig reference, or something; the Doritos are in some universal sense, Better. But does that even make sense?

greatm31, I think you may be over-analyzing the message that the Doritos' marketing team has whipped up. Here are my thoughts on the topic.

1. Most consumers don't think about what is being presented to them. They see the word "BETTER" in all caps and subconsiously their brains say "Hey, it's better... I'll buy some of these."

2. If you are still attemping to apply reason and logic to advertising then you haven't been properly conditioned yet. I would suggest watching more TV - particuarly network news, reality tv shows and lots of commercials.

I see your point greatm31... it's quite like the countless times pepsi (I think, hehe) and 7up (i think) has come up with "new improved taste"... what do you mean "improved"? and how can it still be pepsi or 7up if it taste differently, is there no connection between brand and taste?!

hmm - coke taste differently in most countries, so... I guess it's all just about marketing and focus groups rather than the product itself...tssss....

Just this: please, please, please don't become obsessed with quality while you're supposed to be out enjoying a motorcycle vacation with your sun, or else end up living in a boat with a "clever" thought cataloging system that occupies most of the room, unless you can churn a couple of amazing books out of the experience.

On the Doritos side... Don't mess with a classic. I don't want no "New Doritos". (Remember new coke?) New flavors are OK though. Also, anybody else tried the Green colored Guacamole Doritos? They eerily reminded me of Soylent Green. Is it me or has the good old 200 grams bag of my youth discreetly and progressively shrunk from 200 to 190 to 180 grams? And here is a Doritos Wallpaper for you true Doritos fans.

P.S.: For the Futurama fans out there, FOX and David X. Cohen are in talks about bringing three brand new Futurama movies directly to DVD. I'm psyched.

Just this: please, please, please don't become obsessed with quality while you're supposed to be out enjoying a motorcycle vacation with your sun, or else end up living in a boat with a "clever" thought cataloging system that occupies most of the room, unless you can churn a couple of amazing books out of the experience.

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Thanks for catching the forced reference. I'm actually considering going completely insane over my pursuit of meaning-in-doritos, considering the possible revenue I could get from the millions of copies of the book that I write after *recovering* from my *illness*.

Back to the point, if there is one, I would worry and wonder what would happened if they continually improved the taste? Would it become unbearably good? So good that it is universally good? So good that it is physiologically impossible to actually not enjoy them more than life itself? What kind of society would we live in if manufacturers could design a product so good that it becomes a necessary part of our existence? That's awfully scary. Maybe they should outlaw product improvements.

Or maybe it'd just be smarter if instead of making them "better" they just made them more "Doritos-like." They could have a big label that says "NOW TASTES EVEN MORE LIKE YOU WOULD EXPECT IT TO TASTE, WHETHER THAT IS ITSELF GOOD OR BAD IN YOUR THEORETICAL WORLD OF DELICIOUSNESS." I think overall that would avoid potential catastrophic societal breakdown.

I see your point greatm31... it's quite like the countless times pepsi (I think, hehe) and 7up (i think) has come up with "new improved taste"... what do you mean "improved"? and how can it still be pepsi or 7up if it taste differently, is there no connection between brand and taste?!

hmm - coke taste differently in most countries, so... I guess it's all just about marketing and focus groups rather than the product itself...tssss....

A

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If they would vote to kill the sugar industry protection in the US, maybe we'd get real Coke back.

Nah, it's not about taste -- it's about saving money on the formula.

In Cokes case it was the switch to the cheaper sugar substitutes because sugar got too expensive, Doritos may have done the same thing to shave pennies.

And they are telling you they made the switch -- because it tastes better.

It's just to let people know it may taste different.

c'mon Delta made changes in their service fleetwide that saved as little as a hundred thousand here and there ... but it didn't improve service one bit.

Doritos are good. But Sour Cream and Onion Pringles are better.
Bugles are good too.
I'm pretty sure all this "More Flavor!" bullcrap came about by some pothead calling up the 1-800 number on the back of the bag for questions and comments.

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